On Jun. 12, 2019, Intermountain Healthcare and deCODE genetics announced a major global collaboration and study focused on discovering new connections between genetics and human disease that will involve the collection of half a million DNA samples. The initiative, called the HerediGene: Population Study, represented the largest and most comprehensive DNA mapping effort to date in the U.S. from a single population.

For the study, which was voluntary and free to participants, Intermountain teams worked with deCODE to analyze the genomes of 500,000 people from Intermountain’s patient population, primarily in Utah and Idaho.